Guide

The Schengen 90/180 rule

If you visit the Schengen area without a visa or residence permit, you can spend at most 90 days there in any 180-day period. Here's how that is counted.

Who it applies to

Visitors from outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland who don't need a visa for short stays: British, American, Canadian and Australian passport holders, among others. It doesn't apply to EU, EEA or Swiss citizens, or to anyone with a residence permit or long-stay visa for the country they're in. If you hold two passports and one is from the EU, the limit doesn't apply when you travel on that one. GOV.UK's travel advice has the entry rules for each country, and does the 90/180 rule apply to me? answers the common cases.

The rolling window

There is no fixed 180-day block that resets. On any day, look back over that day and the 179 days before it. If you were in the Schengen area on more than 90 of those days, you are over the limit. Each new day, the oldest day drops out of the window.

Any day you spend in the area, even a few hours of it, counts as a whole day. So the day you arrive and the day you leave both count.

Worked examples

One long winter stay

You arrive in Spain on 1 January 2026 and leave on 31 March: 31 + 28 + 31 = 90 days, all of your allowance. On 29 June, the 180-day window still starts on 1 January, so you can't return yet. On 30 June, 1 January drops out and you have one day back. From 30 June you can stay another 90 days, until 27 September, because each new day replaces a January, February or March day leaving the window.

Several shorter trips

Trips of 20 days in February, 30 in April and 35 in June add up to 85 days. In early July you have 5 left. Your February days start to drop out of the window at the end of July, 180 days after the first of them, and each day that drops out gives one back. The Schengen calculator works this out for any set of trips.

Which countries count

The 29 Schengen members: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.

Ireland and Cyprus are EU members outside the Schengen area: days there don't count. Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican aren't members but can only be reached through Schengen countries, so time there is usually counted. Gibraltar and the Channel Islands are outside.

The Entry/Exit System (EES)

The EU's Entry/Exit System records non-EU travellers' entries and exits at Schengen borders and works out the days used, replacing passport stamps. Keep your own record too: see passport control and your days.

Check with the official tool

The European Commission publishes a short-stay calculator. Ours counts the same way, and also tells you how long you can stay from any date and when you can come back.